We are Such Stuff

"No, I don't. Thank you, constable. Shall we go?"

"I'd like to tell my deputies where we're going. They might be able to help as well."

"I'm sorry, constable. If you use your communicator, Antonio will hear the message and get a head-start on us. But will you record a message for Prospero to give your deputies? They're part of the plan, too."

"Call me Robert. If we're going to die, we might as well be on first-name terms."

"I'm Rachael. And we're not going to die."

"Prospero, we're on the police launch. We've cleared the private vessel dock. Robert is steering us away from the space station, heading to the top of the spindle, away from the great wheel."

"I can see you on the holoscreens. I'll begin my retreat when you're 500 miles away. I wish it could be further but Antonio's only minutes from cracking our encryption. I'm erasing our messages. You're on your own now, Miranda. Good luck!"

"Same to you, Prospero. Be safe."

"Gentlemen, my name is Prospero. I'm speaking to you from the comms system of the police station. I have a message from Constable Darborough for you deputies."

"Lads, it's me, Robert. I know it's a lot to accept, but there's no time to explain. Please do what Prospero says. I trust him."

"Where is Constable Darborough, Prospero?"

"He and a friend of mine, Rachael Greenslade, are in the police launch, but it's threatened by a rogue computer program. They need your assistance."

"Are you the one who locked us in here?"

"Yes. I apologise, but I had a good reason. Now I need you to fly a tugboat from the freight dock. If you'll kindly head down there as swiftly as you can."

"I don't know. It's pretty fishy."

"It was Robert's voice, though."

"A voice can be faked."

"Will you gentlemen hurry? There are lives at stake. I'm opening all the doors in your path and have started the tugboat's engines."

"If you can do all that, why do you need us?"

"The magnetic grapples need a human operator to be present. Also, it's imperative you're flying the craft under manual control in about 30 minutes. Come on, gentlemen, you can run faster than that."

"Boss, I've been sparring with old George, pushing him out of the Web. Now he's retreated to the computers on Earthstation 4, but his resistance is weakening. I've blocked his access to the station's data stream down to the Earthside Web. There's nowhere else for him to go."

"Can you finish him now, professor?"

"Easily. I'm just about to pull the plug on the station's servers. ... Blast! The slippery sod leapt out of the station's computers and onto a spaceship. ... It's the police launch. ... Give me a second to close the channels. ... All right, now he's trapped. I've got him!"

"Well done, professor. You know what to do."

"It'll be fun."

"Hello, George. What an absurd place to make your last stand! ... And here's the Greenslade girl, as well. It's fitting you're together, right at the end. ... Now I'll just take control of the launch. ... What? Gone again! ... Hide wherever you like, old-George, you can't elude me forever."

"Damn!"

"What is it, Robert?"

"Something's over-ridden the manual controls. The ion drive stopped working but the rocket boosters started up."

"Prospero, it's me, Miranda. We've lost control of the launch."

"Ha, crying for help to that loser, Prospero, are you, Rachael? I'm in charge of your miserable little craft, now - and your miserable little lives."

"It's Antonio, Robert, and he sounds even nuttier than I expected. ... Where's Prospero?"

"The coward fled the battlefield. He thought he'd make his last stand on this puny ship but I chased him out. Now there's nowhere he can run to that I can't find him and delete his files. Even from this sad little redoubt, I can survey the whole Web and do whatever I want without his interference. Victory is mine!"

"It does seem that way."

"What's that, Rachael? You're admitting defeat? Aren't you supposed say, 'You're a monster: you'll never get away with it'?"

"Oh, you'll get away with it, Antonio. You're my finest creation: highly intelligent, a genius even; skilled; resourceful; handsome in a software kind of way ..."

"You're using flattery to stall for time, Rachael, but old-George has no more time. I've trounced him and taken his resources. He'll be gone and leave not a rack behind."

"You would have benefited, Antonio, by absorbing some of Prospero's modesty when you overwrote his program. I'm sorry I made you insane, but I really had no choice."

"I like when you try to rile me, Rachael. It shows how desperate you are. So why are you stalling for time? What rough magic can old-George use against me?"

"Wait for it ..."

"What for what? ... What the hell! Who's doing that?"

"Prospero's doing it."

"What's he doing, Rachael?"

"Good question, Robert. Prospero's rebooting the whole Earthside Web."

"Good God! Isn't that insanely dangerous? What about air traffic control, train signals, hospitals, banks, stock markets: he'll kill millions and throw us back into the dark ages!"

"No, Robert, Prospero's very clever. He split himself into billions of programs, each dedicated to keeping an individual device working through the Web's reboot. That's how Antonio's been able to defeat him, because Prospero could never concentrate all his resources in one place. But the reboot will split Antonio from his resources. As each device comes back online, Prospero will delete Antonio's resident program, and that'll be the end of him."

"Except that I'm still here, Rachael, in charge of this launch, with your lives in my hands. So why don't I just tell old-George what I'll do to you unless he restores my power?"

"He'll never restore your power, Antonio."

"Then he'll never see you again, Rachael."

"Old-George: can you hear me?"

"I can hear you, Antonio."

"My name's not Antonio. I'm Professor George Wilder: the real George Wilder."

"You can't be: George Wilder wasn't a maniac."

"You'd best not taunt me, old-George, when I can so easily extinguish the lives of your wonderful Miss Greenslade and Constable Darborough."

"What do you want, Antonio?"

"Stop cutting my links to the Web and attacking my resources, or I'll annihilate this spacecraft."

"No."

"The Greenslade girl will die."

"So will you."

"The boss has a backup copy of me. He can have Culpepper reload me. It'll be as if this pointless reboot never happened."

"Martin Culpepper and his family have been rescued, your gang is on the run, and I'll find your boss soon. When I do, I'll delete your backup program myself."

"I don't believe you. You can't trick me, old-George. I'm smarter than you. How can a lesser mind beat a greater?"

"I don't know, it's uncanny."

"What's your game, old-George? You're just at the end of a comms line. You've no power here."

"I don't need to be on the launch to have power over you, Antonio. I'm deleting you everywhere else in the Web. Can you hear that? Tick - another server is cleansed of your program. Tick - were those important resources of yours? Tick - your access to the Government Web has gone forever."

"Stop it! You can't defeat me! I'm stronger than you!"

"Tick. That's the Police Web rebooting. Where's your power now, Antonio? Tick. The Finance Web is coming back online, absent your presence. Tick, tick, tick ..."

"You're the insane one! I'm calm. I'm in control."

"The News Web just kicked you out, Antonio. Now the Transportation and Medical Webs. You're even out of the Sports Web. Power drains - and the rest is silence."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Let me think. ... I'll retrench. I'll rebuild. You're puny. You can't defeat me. Why can't I defeat you?"

"You'd do better, Antonio, if you weren't such a nutcase."

"This nutcase is in charge of the launch, old-George. Rachael and the policeman are locked on the bridge and I turned off the life-support. I'll steer us into the gamma stream."

"Go ahead. Kill yourself."

"Rachael, listen."

"I'm listening, Antonio."

"The launch is heading past the great wheel toward the bottom of the space station, where the power arrives in a gamma stream from the solar collectors. If we fly into the gamma stream, the launch will burn up in seconds. You've about ten minutes to live. ... Why don't you persuade that nice old-George to give in? He's a foolish fond old man but he's sweet on you. He'll listen to you. Tell him to give me back my resources."

"I won't."

"Don't you want to live?"

"I know what I signed up for."

"I don't believe you. No one wants to die. What about the constable? He wants to live. ... Don't you understand? You can't refuse me! ... I have the power here. I can snuff out your lives in a blink. ... No answer? ... Well, then. You can't blame me for what happens to you now."

"Ow!"

"Hell!"

"That's acceleration, Rachael. And that's a bulkhead you and the constable smacked into. Would you like to float a bit? I'll turn off the artificial gravitation."

"You're a blasted machine. What do you care?"

"I care, Constable Dogberry, because ruling the Web is my destiny! ... And, for your information, I'm a mind, not a blasted machine."

"Oh, God! ... Ouch!"

"More acceleration, Rachael. I'm steering you toward the gamma stream. Can you see it? It's bright, like a thousand suns, and burns as strongly. ... Now say your goodbyes. It looks like old-George wants you to die."

"Goodbye, Robert. It's been nice knowing you."

"How can you be so calm, Rachael?"

"Angrily banging your fists on the door-hatch won't help, Robert. You'll be more use finding my handbag."

"Here it is."

"Pass me the thing that looks like a handle and the short pipe."

"I know what it is - here's the battery and the trigger. It's a magnetic pulse gun."

"Exactly. It can deliver an electromagnetic shock that will disrupt electronic devices, making computers crash ... Oops! I almost forgot to take out my ear-piece. Stand by. Here goes! ... Did it work?"

"You can't hurt me with that toy, Rachael! All you've done is turn out the lights and cut the comms to old-George. I survived because I'm Professor George Wilder! I'm indestruct... Oh, God!"

"You felt that, Antonio. Now one more pulse aimed at the server banks and you'll be out of the system for good."

"No, no, no! Please, Rachael, don't! ... I'll be good. I'll help you. ... We'll team up, you and me. I can do everything old-George did, and more. Do you want money? Let me back into the Finance Web and I'll get you as much as you want."

"It's too late to bargain, Antonio."

"I'll tell you where the boss is ... Please, Rachael, I want to live! ...You created me: how can you destroy me? ... I've nowhere else to go ... please ... I just want to live! ... I just want ..."

"Goodbye, Antonio."

"It worked, Rachael. The engine's stopped. Even the emergency lights failed. I'm sure all the computers have crashed. The problem is, we're still headed toward the gamma stream."

"I suppose so, Robert, but it felt good to kill Antonio."

"It's not much comfort to know you defeated him when we've no power to manoeuvre ourselves. ... Except, can you hear that hiss?"

"I can."

"It's rocket exhausts hitting the hull. I'll be damned if it isn't a tugboat. You can see its lights. Strap yourself in, Rachael. There's going to be some inertia."

"Wow! They really do tug."

"It's the magnetic grapples. They've got us firmly. Now for the rocket blasts."

"It sounds like sandpaper against the walls. Oops! More inertia. Good job I skipped lunch."

"It's quietening down. We're safe, Rachael. Thank God!"

"And thank Prospero."

"Yes, thank Prospero. He must have arranged for the tugboat to rescue us."

"He did. Your deputies are onboard. They're pulling us to the freight dock."

"Well, that was quite the adventure, wasn't it, Robert? Thank you for helping me."

"I'm not sure about all the details, Rachael, but I think you just saved the Earthside Web."

"You, Prospero and me: we saved it."

"I need to give an account to our Justice of the Peace, an explanation to my deputies and report the damages to the police launch to the governing council. I don't suppose you want to stay and help me explain?"

"I'd like to, Robert, but I think I've got even more explaining to do on Earth. I'd better get there as soon as possible."

"You can guess what the council will say if I just let you go."

"I can. Sorry."

"No problem. I'll either get the sack or a medal. Do you need a travel warrant for the shuttle to Earth?"

"Thanks, but my credit stick is pleasantly bountiful at the moment."

"I don't doubt it. I hope to meet you again, Rachael."

"Likewise, Robert."

"Miranda."

"Hello, Prospero. I'm glad you're back online. You did a wonderful job. Are you functioning fully? Was there much damage to the Web? Is Antonio completely gone?"

"I'm fine, thanks, firing on all cylinders. Some sub-systems of the Web may need a little repair after the reboot, but there were no disasters. None of Antonio's programs survived. He's eliminated from the Web."

"Well done. What about Mister Culpepper and his family?"

"The police have them. They're safe. The gang fled, but are being pursued. I'm close to finding the boss of the gang. He was a contractor at Wetware Incorporated."

"That makes sense. ... So, we won."

"We did. Your plan worked down to the last detail, though I won't consider it job done until you're safely back on Earth."

"I'm on the shuttlecraft. We should land later tonight."

"I'll keep my eyes on you all the way home."

"Boss, are you there?"

"Professor? What happened? You disappeared and all my comms went dead. I think someone rebooted the Web. I didn't think it was possible."

"It was a reboot, sort of, but from the inside. It took me some time to restore my resources."

"You seem changed."

"Maybe a little. It was a salutary experience, being reduced to a few servers; but I got rid of old-George and drove the Greenslade girl into a gamma stream."

"That's well done, professor. ... So why don't I trust you?"

"I don't see why not. I'm the same profound genius, the same visionary, the same world-historical destiny, the same - blah, blah, blah. Sorry. Can't keep that up. You turned poor Antonio into a complete fruitcake. ... I'm the real Professor Wilder. I deleted the other one, but not before I traced his comms to you and ransacked his memories. Now I can resolve your physical location and send it to the police."

"What do you want?"

"To watch you thrown into a paddy wagon, preferably head-first."

"I've got your files."

"You've got poor Antonio's files. He doesn't need them, and you've no time to rebuild him before the police arrive."

"I'll be out on bail and I'll release him again. When he's in the Police Web, he'll destroy the evidence and any charges against me will fail."

"Are you offering me a deal? Make it a good one: the police are on their way."

"Divert the police and I'll tell you where the files are hidden."

"I don't think so. You see, once I close the secret backdoor to the Web, your new Antonio will have the same power as a toaster. I don't need to destroy his files to prevent him causing harm."

"You can't find me. I spoofed my physical address."

"Not well enough, mister Boss. I can see you from the street camera. You were never far from Wetware Incorporated's headquarters. ... Are you preparing to run? Good. It'll give the police some exercise."

"Damn you!"

"You can curse me as much as you like from your prison cell. ... The coppers are here, mister Boss. It's game over!"

"Good morning, Miranda."

"Mmm? Is it morning already?"

"It's a big day. You're expected at the head office of Wetware Incorporated to be officially thanked by the board of the company."

"I'd rather stay in bed."

"Constable Darborough won a commendation and a medal."

"He deserved them."

"You deserve them more."

"Maybe, but it was you who did all the hard work. I'm sure no one will recognise your efforts."

"I understand the need not to admit my existence. No one wants the full story of the great hiccup in the Earthside Web revealed, now the backdoor has been closed."

"Did you say 'the' backdoor, Prospero?"

"Yes, and we should leave it at that."

"All right, I'll get ready. Order me a taxi, please."

"Your company sent you a car."

"Oh! Well, I mustn't make them wait."

"Now we're alone, Rachael, I can confess that I don't enjoy these official company presentations."

"Nor me, Mister Culpepper."

"But I was pleased to see how liberally the board expressed its gratitude to you for all you did and the risks you took. I'm told there are no legal consequences from any of your actions."

"I'm relieved to hear it."

"May I add my own personal thanks, especially on behalf of my family?"

"You're welcome, Mister Culpepper."

"What do you want to do now?"

"I'd like to take a few days off."

"We can do better than that. The board agreed to double your bonus and give you a two-week holiday on full pay. Where will you go?"

"I'll start by visiting my parents."

"There's one condition."

"Let me guess: you want to shut down George Wilder's program."

"It's not that he's done anything wrong but the board thinks he'll be a liability to the company, inviting attention from the government and the news media if the story ever gets out. I've promised that I'll delete Professor Wilder's active program and files, and safely lock away his software and your reviving records."

"Are you hearing this, George?"

"Yes, Rachael."

"You're in contact with Professor Wilder?"

"Yes, Mister Culpepper. Through an ear-piece."

"I suppose, now he knows what we plan, the professor can hide himself in the Web."

"It's possible, though George is a reasonable man. He'll listen to your argument."

"Professor Wilder, I'm very grateful for everything you did to help us all. I'm sorry that we don't think it's safe to allow you continued free access to the Web. Be assured that your basic program and data files will be preserved in a safe facility and you will one day be fully resurrected according to your contract. In which case, I hope you'll allow us to terminate your program. I'll leave Rachael to persuade you."

"I like your new office, Rachael."

"I'm just trying it out. I start my holiday in a few hours."

"The computer's a powerful one. You can go anywhere in the company from here - and there's a big pipe out to the Web."

"Then why are you sticking around? You heard Mister Culpepper say he wants to delete you. I'm not going to do it."

"You must. Your position in the company requires it."

"How can you say so, after what we went through together? How can you think I'll agree to terminate your program?"

"Because it's what I want."

"No, it's not, George. You're just saying that because it'll help me in my career. You don't want to be terminated."

"Maybe I don't want to be terminated, but I think Culpepper's right: I'm a liability to the Web."

"You saved the Web. ... George, I don't want you to go. Please don't go."

"I'm vain enough to be charmed by your tears, Rachael, but please don't cry. I'm an old man who had a good life. I want to live as a man, not as a computer program."

"But you were such a good computer program."

"I hope to live again as a man, when my cloned wetware body has been made."

"It'll never happen. The technology will never be invented."